The Four Fingers of Death, by Rick Moody '83 (Little, Brown). Moody's 725-page futuristic novel is dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut and a fitting tribute to his wacky black humor. The narrator, Montrese Crandall, is a writer who is failing to make ends meet hawking old baseball cards of robotically enhanced players. With his wife deathly ill, Crandall scams his way into writing a novelization of the 2025 remake of the 1963 horror classic The Crawling Hand, in which a manned mission to Mars returns to Earth bearing only a single human arm, which is missing a finger.

 

The Last Stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick '78 (Viking.) Popular historian Philbrick, who won a National Book Award for his In the Heart of the Sea and was a Pulitzer finalist for Mayflower, moves inland and takes on yet another American archetype—the conflict between George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull. "Most Americans think of the Last Stand as belonging solely to (Custer)," he writes. "But the myth applies equally to his legendary opponent, Sitting Bull. For while [Sitting Bull's] Sioux and Cheyenne were the victors that day, the battle marked the beginning of their own Last Stand."

 

 

 

 

 

Four Fish, The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg '90 (Penguin). Faced with salmonella-seasoned eggs and hormone-riddled beef, consumers turn to wild fish as a healthy alternative. Through in-depth reporting and personal narrative, New York Times Magazine writer Greenberg describes the history of four of these species—cod, salmon, sea bass, and tuna—to show how overfishing and environmental decline have reduced the genetic diversity of wild fish to critical levels. He argues that better regulation of wild and farmed fish and better informed consumers are these species' last and best hope.

 

ALUMNI FICTION

Rivers of Gold by Adam Dunn '93 (Bloomsbury).

Dust by Joan Frances Turner '67, MAT '69 (Berkeley).

 

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel '01 (Bloomsbury).

When Molly Was a Harvey Girl by Frances M. Wood '73 (Kane/Miller).

 

ALUMNI NONFICTION

Rational Conclusions by James D. Agresti '88 (Documentary Press).

True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World by Lisa Birnbach '78 with Chip Kidd (Alfred A. Knopf).

The Modulated Scream: Pain in Late Medieval Culture by Esther Cohen '73 AM, '76 PhD (University of Chicago).

Making Do: Innovation in Kenya's Informal Economy by Steve Daniels '10 (Analoguedigital.com).

Immigration and Conflict in Europe by Rafaela M. Dancygier '00 (Cambridge University).

Hotel Tropico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization, 1950–1980 by Jerry D√°vila '93 AM, '98 PhD (Duke University).

The Longevity Diet: The Only Proven Way to Slow the Aging Process and Maintain Peak Vitality—Through Caloric Restriction by Brian M. Delaney '87 and Lisa Walford (Da Capo).

Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland by Catherine Epstein '85 (Oxford University).

Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolin '83 (W.W. Norton).

Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes and More by Beverly Nanes Dubrin '63 (Penn/Imagine).

Selling Sex in the Reich: Prostitutes in German Society, 1914–1945 by Victoria Harris '03 (Oxford University).

Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order by Charles Hill '57 (Yale University).

The Zodiac of Paris: How an Improbable Controversy over an Ancient Egyptian Artifact Provoked a Modern Debate between Religion and Science by Jed Z. Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz '93 (Princeton).

Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier by Homay King '94 (Duke University).

An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle Over Equality in Washington, D.C. by Kate Masur '93 (University of North Carolina).

Smart Real Estate Deals in the Bank Bailout Era and Beyond by Charles McKay '92 ScM (AuthorHouse).

301 Smart Answers to Tough Business Etiquette Questions by Vicky Oliver '82 (Skyhorse).

The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters by Bruce Parker '69; (Palgrave Macmillan).

A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides by David Rohde '90 and Kristen Mulvihill '91 (Viking).

Hidden Truth: Young Men Navigating Lives In and Out of Juvenile Prison by Adam D. Reich '03 (University of California).

Emptying the Nest: Launching Your Young Adult Toward Success and Self Reliance by Brad E. Sachs '78 (Palgrave MacMillan).

Essential Emergency Trauma, senior editor Kaushal Shah '96, with Daniel Egan and Joshua Quaas (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins).

To Be Reformed: Living the Tradition and Let Us Reason Together: Christians and Jews in Conversation by Joseph D. Small '63 (Witherspoon).

Bad Shoes and the Women Who Love Them by Leora Tanenbaum '91 (Seven Stories).

Brave New Knits: 26 Projects and Personalities From the Knitting Blogosphere by Julie Iselin Turjoman '79 (Rodale).

Rejecting Rights by Sonu Bedi '97 (Cambridge University).

Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil: Sexual Rights Movements in Emerging Democracies by Rafael De La Dehesa '92 AM (Duke University).

Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse by Lawrence E. Babits '81 PhD and Joshua B. Howard (University of North Carolina Press).

 

ALUMNI DRAMA

Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig '05 (Yale University).

 

ALUMNI POETRY

A Martian Muse: Further Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry by Reginald Shepherd '91 MFA (University of Michigan).